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Lenin: Notes for a Biographer
Hurriedly written by Trotsky in the immediate aftermath of Lenin's death, these notes were intended to form the basis of an unwritten future biography. These episodic and incomplete notes offer a fascinating account of Lenin's single-mindedness and his relentless, all-consuming drive towards revolution in Russia.
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First published January 1, 1925
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About the author
Leon Trotsky
1,089 books796 followersSee also Лев Троцкий
Russian theoretician Leon Trotsky or Leon Trotski, originally Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, led the Bolshevik of 1917, wrote Literature and Revolution in 1924, opposed the authoritarianism of Joseph Stalin, and emphasized world; therefore later, the Communist party in 1927 expelled him and in 1929 banished him, but he included the autobiographical My Life in 1930, and the behest murdered him in exile in Mexico.
The exile of Leon Trotsky in 1929 marked rule of Joseph Stalin.
People better know this Marxist. In October 1917, he ranked second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as commissar of people for foreign affairs and as the founder and commander of the Red Army and of war. He also ranked among the first members of the Politburo.
After a failed struggle of the left against the policies and rise in the 1920s, the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union deported Trotsky. An early advocate of intervention of Army of Red against European fascism, Trotsky also agreed on peace with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the fourth International, Trotsky continued to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, eventually assassinated him. From Marxism, his separate ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term, coined as early as 1905. Ideas of Trotsky constitute a major school of Marxist. The Soviet administration never rehabilitated him and few other political figures.
Russian theoretician Leon Trotsky or Leon Trotski, originally Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, led the Bolshevik of 1917, wrote Literature and Revolution in 1924, opposed the authoritarianism of Joseph Stalin, and emphasized world; therefore later, the Communist party in 1927 expelled him and in 1929 banished him, but he included the autobiographical My Life in 1930, and the behest murdered him in exile in Mexico.
The exile of Leon Trotsky in 1929 marked rule of Joseph Stalin.
People better know this Marxist. In October 1917, he ranked second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as commissar of people for foreign affairs and as the founder and commander of the Red Army and of war. He also ranked among the first members of the Politburo.
After a failed struggle of the left against the policies and rise in the 1920s, the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union deported Trotsky. An early advocate of intervention of Army of Red against European fascism, Trotsky also agreed on peace with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the fourth International, Trotsky continued to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, eventually assassinated him. From Marxism, his separate ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term, coined as early as 1905. Ideas of Trotsky constitute a major school of Marxist. The Soviet administration never rehabilitated him and few other political figures.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 11, 2023
This volume is a series of biographical sketches. Trotsky raced to establish his links with Lenin in this Bolshevik adaptation of Succession. It didn’t work.
There’s a thirteen year gap in the reminiscing, Lenin and Trotsky had a falling out. Yet it isn’t that omission which is the most ominous, but rather how Comrade Koba lingers along the edges, sniffing and calculating.
I was genuinely surprised at the dazzling writing. Hitchens was always a fan but he had his baggage. I certainly will explore further.
There’s a thirteen year gap in the reminiscing, Lenin and Trotsky had a falling out. Yet it isn’t that omission which is the most ominous, but rather how Comrade Koba lingers along the edges, sniffing and calculating.
I was genuinely surprised at the dazzling writing. Hitchens was always a fan but he had his baggage. I certainly will explore further.
November 10, 2022
I expected this to be a trudge through effusive praise of Lenin, as the father of Soviet Communism, shot through with overwrought and cocksure diatribes about imperatives and pitfalls of navigating the correct path. There is some of that, but there is also the vignette about Lenin going fishing, and using that time, sitting, waiting, to think of how he can make the lives of working people better. There is the repeated description of his quirky manner of listening to people speak, where he hides the upper part of his face with one hand and peeks through his fingers at the person, as if he were trying to physically control the rate at which the arguments entered his mind so that he can process them. And there is the story of Lenin taking boyish joy in running faster than Trotsky and beating him to the meeting held across town, smiling and panting heavily when Trotsky walked through door. Or, the story about the morning after the Second Congress of the Soviets, during which Lenin and Trotsky had spent the night on the floor of an adjoining, furniture-less room, with sheets and pillows on the floor. Trotsky slept, Lenin did not. Trotsky woke to the sight of a tired and giddy Lenin, overcome by the momentousness of what was happening in Russia, the taking of power by the Bolsheviks: "It's dizzying", Lenin said in German, with a sleepy smile. And there are more stories, observations, and seemingly insignificant memories that Trotsky chose to document in these "notes for a biographer". Whatever one thinks of Lenin the historical figure - visionary, or monster - Lenin the person is to be found and even understood, a little, here in the fond reminiscences of his friend and comrade.
September 30, 2012
Anyone with a boner for Lenin will thoroughly enjoy reading this book. I always enjoy Trotsky's colorful and creative writing style, and on top of that it paints a human face of Lenin beyond his sassy, fiery polemics. There were times where I'd be reading it and a big smile would appear on my face and I'd just be thinking "God damn, uncle Lenin, I wish I could have met you". Also, at the end, Trotsky and Lenin pretty much tear HG Wells a new asshole which I thoroughly enjoyed. "What a petit bourgeois! Aye, aye, what a Philistine!"
February 20, 2024
This short book is well worth a read; all the more as it is an under-appreciated work by Trotsky, and suffered a shaky publishing history.
The introduction by Lionel Kochan, however, should be torn out. It is a stupid muddle of mistakes and misunderstanding, written in an unbearable academic style. I struggle to believe the man was familiar with the context, or even that he had read the text he was providing an introduction to.
Trotsky's short essays are absolutely packed full of insights and well worth reading. They deal with some of the most important issues tackled by Lenin and Trotsky. Some are less polished, and most assume a good familiarity with the context and other contemporary works. It is this detail that reveals the most about Lenin’s personality and politics. But the word ‘biography’ in the subtitle of this edition is therefore a little misleading. And anyone unfamiliar who picks up this book looking for some short commentary on Lenin's life or personality will be disappointed (as was the previous owner of my copy, who has filled the margins with frustrated questions and notes!).
The large 1903-1917 shaped hole in Trotsky's recollections is not, I think, because Trotsky wanted to hide anything. Rather, he (and Lenin) considered the issue of their differences put to bed after the events of October 1917 proved their agreement on all fundamental questions (and proved much more serious differences with Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, etc.) Trotsky put pen to paper here, as he tells in the foreword, for future re-use in a more complete work. Anyone looking for polemics can go read the books they know full well where written to deal with them.
The introduction by Lionel Kochan, however, should be torn out. It is a stupid muddle of mistakes and misunderstanding, written in an unbearable academic style. I struggle to believe the man was familiar with the context, or even that he had read the text he was providing an introduction to.
Trotsky's short essays are absolutely packed full of insights and well worth reading. They deal with some of the most important issues tackled by Lenin and Trotsky. Some are less polished, and most assume a good familiarity with the context and other contemporary works. It is this detail that reveals the most about Lenin’s personality and politics. But the word ‘biography’ in the subtitle of this edition is therefore a little misleading. And anyone unfamiliar who picks up this book looking for some short commentary on Lenin's life or personality will be disappointed (as was the previous owner of my copy, who has filled the margins with frustrated questions and notes!).
The large 1903-1917 shaped hole in Trotsky's recollections is not, I think, because Trotsky wanted to hide anything. Rather, he (and Lenin) considered the issue of their differences put to bed after the events of October 1917 proved their agreement on all fundamental questions (and proved much more serious differences with Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, etc.) Trotsky put pen to paper here, as he tells in the foreword, for future re-use in a more complete work. Anyone looking for polemics can go read the books they know full well where written to deal with them.
May 14, 2017
Shortly after the death of Lenin in 1924, Trotsky penned down his shared memories with Lenin, using his sharp and elegant prose to paint a lively portrait of the former Soviet leader. In this book he recalls various periods of their revolutionary activity. Starting off with their time in Western Europe, Trotsky tells of how he and Lenin first met in London and the busy editorial process of Iskra, the Bolshevik newspaper, in smoky backrooms. Trotsky manages to vividly capture the heated debates and romantic lifestyle of the early 20th century revolutionary community in exile. Furthermore, he pictures their return to Russia, the sleepless nights during the revolution and finally Lenin’s time in office as leader of the Soviet Union.
In the introduction, Trotsky, with his characteristic lack of humbleness, claims that he ‘remembers conversations better than others’ and that the pure quality of his memory provides a reliable account of events. He was convinced that the historical value of his account could serve as source material for a future biographer of Lenin, hence the title of this work. Such a biography would prove to be an extremely important work since Lenin was to become a giant of history. Although not exactly wrong in this assessment since the results of his actions would echo through the remainder of the century, that legacy would not be the liberation of the human race as Trotsky envisioned.
The reliability of this account as a historical source for Lenin biographies is questionable. For most of the memories there is a ten to twenty years gap between the actual events and the time of writing. Many of the details in Trotsky’s story such as who was at what meeting and what exactly they said remain fuzzy. The author admits that some of the dialogue has been filled in to match the gist of the conversation. This means that we cannot be sure how close this account is to the actual events and we might be better off looking for material that was written earlier.
What is more interesting is Trotsky’s view of Lenin. The selection of material that the author made, although not uncritical, sketches a very specific image. He means to bring across Lenin as the perfect utilitarian, always thinking of the goal to be attained. This stretches from a general political purposiveness to doing his utter best to use as little paper as possible whilst writing. Trotsky praises this attitude as superior to the daydreams of the ‘utopian’ comrades, who are proven wrong time and again by Lenin’s more practical vision. The reader is left to wonder though, whether the leader’s solutions are really always more practical, or just presented as such.
The tone of the ‘notes’ is very clearly one that is intended for publication. Lenin at times seems to turn into a polemical instrument to beat political opponents with. This is overtly so when he spends a chapter bashing H.G. Wells, who one time wrote an article about Lenin. Trotsky uses the occasion not only to prove his comrade’s vision of Lenin’s character wrong, but also to denounce all of his politics as petit-bourgeois imaginings. The tendency of turning everything into a polemic seems very typical of the sectarian politics of the early 20th century Russian left, but severely diminishes the credibility of the author’s stated attempt to bring us closer to the historical Lenin.
But Trotsky’s glorification of Lenin is different from the later Stalinist canonization. Where the latter paints a saintly figure, the former leaves room for anger attacks and frustrations, showing the human side of this man with an almost mythical reputation. Trotsky also uses these pages to nuance a part of the credit given to Lenin by many of their comrades at the time. Lenin, he argues, did not singlehandedly carry out the Russian revolution, but instead sped along the necessary historical development that the working class would have carried out with or without him. Whether the reader agrees with this historically deterministic assessment does not matter. The point is that the author still attempts to temper the cult of personality that would later flourish under the Stalinist regime.
In the end, the text is not useless in helping us to understand Lenin. It is a hallmark in Bolshevik depictions of Lenin and could be used to show the break, or perhaps transition, and continuities between early and later depictions. In this way it can help us understand the evolution of the official communist regime in Russia. Yet the expectation of a biography based on this account suffers the same fate as Trotsky’s prediction towards the end of this book that there will ‘soon’ be statues of Marx and Lenin towering over Trafalgar Square: a vast overestimation.
In the introduction, Trotsky, with his characteristic lack of humbleness, claims that he ‘remembers conversations better than others’ and that the pure quality of his memory provides a reliable account of events. He was convinced that the historical value of his account could serve as source material for a future biographer of Lenin, hence the title of this work. Such a biography would prove to be an extremely important work since Lenin was to become a giant of history. Although not exactly wrong in this assessment since the results of his actions would echo through the remainder of the century, that legacy would not be the liberation of the human race as Trotsky envisioned.
The reliability of this account as a historical source for Lenin biographies is questionable. For most of the memories there is a ten to twenty years gap between the actual events and the time of writing. Many of the details in Trotsky’s story such as who was at what meeting and what exactly they said remain fuzzy. The author admits that some of the dialogue has been filled in to match the gist of the conversation. This means that we cannot be sure how close this account is to the actual events and we might be better off looking for material that was written earlier.
What is more interesting is Trotsky’s view of Lenin. The selection of material that the author made, although not uncritical, sketches a very specific image. He means to bring across Lenin as the perfect utilitarian, always thinking of the goal to be attained. This stretches from a general political purposiveness to doing his utter best to use as little paper as possible whilst writing. Trotsky praises this attitude as superior to the daydreams of the ‘utopian’ comrades, who are proven wrong time and again by Lenin’s more practical vision. The reader is left to wonder though, whether the leader’s solutions are really always more practical, or just presented as such.
The tone of the ‘notes’ is very clearly one that is intended for publication. Lenin at times seems to turn into a polemical instrument to beat political opponents with. This is overtly so when he spends a chapter bashing H.G. Wells, who one time wrote an article about Lenin. Trotsky uses the occasion not only to prove his comrade’s vision of Lenin’s character wrong, but also to denounce all of his politics as petit-bourgeois imaginings. The tendency of turning everything into a polemic seems very typical of the sectarian politics of the early 20th century Russian left, but severely diminishes the credibility of the author’s stated attempt to bring us closer to the historical Lenin.
But Trotsky’s glorification of Lenin is different from the later Stalinist canonization. Where the latter paints a saintly figure, the former leaves room for anger attacks and frustrations, showing the human side of this man with an almost mythical reputation. Trotsky also uses these pages to nuance a part of the credit given to Lenin by many of their comrades at the time. Lenin, he argues, did not singlehandedly carry out the Russian revolution, but instead sped along the necessary historical development that the working class would have carried out with or without him. Whether the reader agrees with this historically deterministic assessment does not matter. The point is that the author still attempts to temper the cult of personality that would later flourish under the Stalinist regime.
In the end, the text is not useless in helping us to understand Lenin. It is a hallmark in Bolshevik depictions of Lenin and could be used to show the break, or perhaps transition, and continuities between early and later depictions. In this way it can help us understand the evolution of the official communist regime in Russia. Yet the expectation of a biography based on this account suffers the same fate as Trotsky’s prediction towards the end of this book that there will ‘soon’ be statues of Marx and Lenin towering over Trafalgar Square: a vast overestimation.
January 25, 2021
レオントロッキーの視点から見たレーニンの実像､思想、言動など
December 31, 2025
Este pequeño libro es un esbozo de la vida de Lenin contado y escrito por Leon Trotsky en ocho textos muy disimiles. Por lo que dista mucho de ser una biografía. Comienza desde el momento en que Trotsky conoce a Lenin en 1902 hasta el día de su fallecimiento. La parte más importante sin duda es su descripción de como se trabajaba dentro del periódico Iskra, su organización, los desacuerdos políticos y la preparación para la revolución de Octubre. Del mismo modo, la segunda parte importante es sobre su retrato de as decisiones que tomó Lenin durante los días previos a la revolución de Octubre y los meses posteriores.
Finalmente, termina con impresiones personales sobre Lenin, impresiones sobre la visita que Wells realizó a Rusia , así como escritos referentes a cuando Lenin resulto herido por un atentado, cuando fue afectado por la enfermedad y un texto sobre su fallecimiento.
Un texto muy interesante referente a uno de los grandes revolucionarios de la historia del mundo, en donde se puede mostrar el aprecio de sus camaradas, así como las decisiones que tomó para guiar la revolución Rusa.
Finalmente, termina con impresiones personales sobre Lenin, impresiones sobre la visita que Wells realizó a Rusia , así como escritos referentes a cuando Lenin resulto herido por un atentado, cuando fue afectado por la enfermedad y un texto sobre su fallecimiento.
Un texto muy interesante referente a uno de los grandes revolucionarios de la historia del mundo, en donde se puede mostrar el aprecio de sus camaradas, así como las decisiones que tomó para guiar la revolución Rusa.
December 31, 2023
Pequeno ensaio mas muito interessante
Leon Trotsky mergulha no atentado que vitimou Vladimir IIitch Lenine, explorando como esse evento personificou o pensamento corajoso e a vontade revolucionária da classe operária. A narrativa habilmente destaca não apenas o impacto físico do atentado, mas também a resiliência ideológica de Lenine, oferecendo uma perspectiva profunda sobre um dos momentos cruciais da história revolucionária. Trotsky cativa os leitores ao examinar não apenas o incidente em si, mas também sua significância simbólica, revelando as complexidades do líder revolucionário e seu compromisso inabalável com os ideais proletários.
Leon Trotsky mergulha no atentado que vitimou Vladimir IIitch Lenine, explorando como esse evento personificou o pensamento corajoso e a vontade revolucionária da classe operária. A narrativa habilmente destaca não apenas o impacto físico do atentado, mas também a resiliência ideológica de Lenine, oferecendo uma perspectiva profunda sobre um dos momentos cruciais da história revolucionária. Trotsky cativa os leitores ao examinar não apenas o incidente em si, mas também sua significância simbólica, revelando as complexidades do líder revolucionário e seu compromisso inabalável com os ideais proletários.
February 21, 2025
If you've even made it to reading reviews on this book, you must be in pretty deep. So perhaps you'll get something from this short collection of pieces. That said, I love me some Russian history and I still can't say I got much from it. It was interesting to read Trotzky's words, I suppose. But much of the content focused on either praise for Lenin (which he laid on thicker and thicker as the book went on), discussions with and about obscure figures from the early days of Bolshevik party (maybe you know them, I didn't and am not worried I didn't), or the finer points of faux-scientific Marxist hogwash. You can do better with something else.
January 12, 2017
Lenin by Leon Trotsky, shows readers of a man growing into an inspirational hero in Russia.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B12...
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B12...
May 13, 2022
Check https://tenforward.social/@Provinto/1... for a thread of my thoughts🤷
October 13, 2025
"La historia no se hace en los salones, sino en las trincheras donde el soldado clava su bayoneta en el pecho de su sargento, y vuelve a su pueblo a quemar la casa de los señores". En una colección suelta de memorias (una importante limitación, aunque ni por ello resulta una obra menos completa), Liev Trotski recopila la esencia de la personalidad y táctica de Lenin. La practicidad ante todo, la separación del ultraizquierdismo, la disposición a la acción, la apertura a las juventudes, y muchas otras reflexiones de uno de los líderes más utilitarios en la historia de las revoluciones humanas.
Repasando el trayecto de su vida, desde la clandestinidad hasta la toma del Smolny en octubre de 1917, pasando por el menosprecio de la Internacional y del Partido, Lenin entendió como mantener la vanguardia de la clase proletaria, sin olvidar que "los obreros y los campesinos más pobres estan cien veces más a la izquierda que nosotros", y cómo incorporar el análisis materialista dialéctico de la historia sin caer en eclecticismo
Finalmente, dado que el tiempo es implacable e invencible, a su fallecimiento se presenta la siguiente conclusión: "Vladimir Ilich ya no existe, pero el leninismo perdura. Nuestro partido es el leninismo en páctica. En vez de lamentarlo, eso es una amonestación o una llamada: nuestra responsabilidad ha crecido".
-Martín. Partido Comunista Revolucionario (sección mexicana de la Internacional Comunista Revolucionaria)
Repasando el trayecto de su vida, desde la clandestinidad hasta la toma del Smolny en octubre de 1917, pasando por el menosprecio de la Internacional y del Partido, Lenin entendió como mantener la vanguardia de la clase proletaria, sin olvidar que "los obreros y los campesinos más pobres estan cien veces más a la izquierda que nosotros", y cómo incorporar el análisis materialista dialéctico de la historia sin caer en eclecticismo
Finalmente, dado que el tiempo es implacable e invencible, a su fallecimiento se presenta la siguiente conclusión: "Vladimir Ilich ya no existe, pero el leninismo perdura. Nuestro partido es el leninismo en páctica. En vez de lamentarlo, eso es una amonestación o una llamada: nuestra responsabilidad ha crecido".
-Martín. Partido Comunista Revolucionario (sección mexicana de la Internacional Comunista Revolucionaria)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews